Noting that a “very very serious” issue of fatalities due to falling from trains has to be addressed, the Bombay High Court on Monday criticised the Railways, saying, “You carry people like cattle”. The HC remarked that it will make the highest level officers accountable as the “situation in Mumbai is pathetic”.
“Very very serious issue has been raised in the PIL and therefore you have to address it. You can’t say, we can’t do this or can’t do that due to the large number of people (in the city). You carry people like cattles… We feel ashamed at the manner in which commuters are made to commute. It should be a well considered reply,” a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar said.
The HC was hearing a PIL by one Yatin Jadhav highlighting that the fatalities amongst the commuters using the Mumbai suburban railway, which is the second busiest such system globally after Tokyo, raises a concern on account of its high deaths.
Petitioner’s advocates Rohan Shah and Surabhi Prabhudesai pointed out a news report of the Free Press Journal dated January 10 this year which, quoting a GRP report, stated that 2,590 commuters lost their lives on the suburban trains in 2023 alone, which is seven people dying every day. 2,441 were injured. While 1,650 people were killed in accidents on the Central Railway, 940 died on the Western Railway.
Shah said that there are three main causes of fatalities – crossing railway tracks, falling from the trains and falling between the gaps in the trains and platforms.
Pointing out the corresponding fatalities across the world, the petition states that Mumbai has 33.8% annual fatality rate / lakh passengers as against 3.66% in New York, 1.45% in Paris and 1.43% in London. Also, 1,400 persons lose their lives in active duty in the Indian Army. “Going out to college or work in suburban trains is more dangerous. Work tantamount to war,” Shah argued.
Surprisingly, the Railways terms deaths due to these reasons as “deaths due to untoward incidents” stating that it was due to negligence of the traveller / trespasser. “If a commuter doesn’t die, the tribunal offers zero compensation. Says there is contributory negligence,” Shah said, adding that the commuters are forced to cross tracks due to infrastructural problems.
Highlighting that the problem is getting worse, the plea stated that the infrastructure has grown at the rate of 8% whereas the persons using it have grown by 85%.
Suresh Kumar appearing for the Western Railways informed the court that they are taking measures like putting up barricades between tracks and have also constructed two-three foot-over-bridges at every station. Kumar said that they have implemented HC directions passed in an earlier similar PIL.
“You should not depend only on orders for saving people's lives. We agree you have followed those directions. But have you been able to check these deaths? Question is whether it (measures) has yielded results? Have you been able to reduce / stop deaths,” asked the bench.
Kumar emphasised that they are running the trains at the maximum available capacity, with trains running at every 2-3 minutes gap at peak hours.
To this the bench said it was not suggesting that the Railways increase the number of trains or increasing capacity of trains, but a solution has to be worked out.
“This time we will make the highest level officers accountable. The situation in Mumbai is pathetic,” the bench said. “You (Railways) Can’t feel happy that you have been commuting 35 lakh people daily. You can’t say considering the number of people in Mumbai you are doing a good job. You can’t even take a refuge saying that there are too many people. You have to change your mindset. Your officers need not be satisfied by commuting such a large number of commuters,” it added.
In a detailed order, the court said that the PIL underscores not only the need for adopting innovative tech tools to check such a high rate of human deaths but also upgrading infrastructure on the Mumbai suburban train system, which admittedly are very old and some already lived their lives.
The high court has directed the General Managers (GM) of the Western and Central Railways to “look into the entire issue” and file affidavits within six weeks. The HC has said that the affidavits shall be “personally vetted” by the GMs and will also “indicate the measures which are available and are in force to check such mishaps”.
The judges said they will consider setting up a committee or a body of experts to conduct high level study on measures to be enforced to meet such challenges of deaths that occur.
Asking the Railways to take the issue seriously, the HC has asked the additional solicitor general Devang Vyas to assist on the issue and kept the PIL for hearing after eight weeks.
